


moving pictures

by gotham_ruaidh



Series: Gotham Writes for Imagine Claire & Jamie [151]
Category: Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:55:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28675551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gotham_ruaidh/pseuds/gotham_ruaidh
Summary: Imagine Brianna explains motion pictures to Jamie by creating a zoetrope. Set in a Book 9-era universe
Series: Gotham Writes for Imagine Claire & Jamie [151]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/345047
Comments: 9
Kudos: 50





	moving pictures

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted at [Imagine Claire & Jamie](https://imagineclaireandjamie.tumblr.com/post/639853343350587392/imagine-brianna-explains-motion-pictures-to-jamie) on tumblr

“Now here, Da - sit down for a second.”

Jamie did as he was asked, one ruddy eyebrow raised skeptically. “It’s never just a second wi’ you, Bree.”

She huffed and walked to the other side of the table, careful of Jem and Mandy as they darted toward their grandfather and settled on his two available knees.

“Are ye going to tell me what that round…thing is under that cloth?”

“I will. It’s a zoetrope.”

Jamie looked at his daughter blankly. “A zoh-what?”

“A zoetrope,” Roger piped up from his perch beside the window. “A moving picture.”

“But Claire always said that the moving pictures were on screens of canvas…”

“No’ always,” Mandy piped up, kicking her tiny legs on either side of Jamie’s knee. “There’s also the telly.”

“A zoetrope is older than the movies,” Brianna explained patiently. “It’s a form of animation.”

“That’s where an artist draws many pictures all in a row, with slight differences, and flips through them so quickly to create the illusion of movement.” Claire ran a gentle hand across Jamie’s back. “And a zoetrope helps with the movement, right, Bree?”

She nodded, and whipped the cloth off of the object on the table.

Jem peered at it. “A rabbit?”

“Aye, it’s many pictures of a rabbit.” Jamie squinted at the strip. “Did ye make the wooden wheel as weel, Bree?”

“No - I had Ian and Roger to help me with that. In exchange for being the first people to see it in action.” Gently she set her hands on either side of the wheel. “Now, everyone - watch carefully.”

They did. She spun the wheel - and Jamie gasped.

“It’s moving!”

“Not really,” Jem explained. “It just looks like it’s moving.”

“Again, please, Bree?” Jamie’s gaze focused laser-like on the zoetrope and the black rabbit bounding in endless white space.

She did - and again he gasped.

“This is magical. And all because the drawings are slightly different?”

“Yes. I made thirty drawings - just enough for about a second of movement. But it’s clear, isn’t it?”

Jamie nodded, mesmerized. Without looking away he reached out, and Claire took his hand, squeezing. “I never could quite see in my mind what ye always talk about wi’ the moving pictures. Now I can.” He swallowed. “It’s marvellous.”

Jem, who had had his fill of movies and television during his stint in the twentieth century, lazily leaned against his grandfather’s shoulder. Watching his Mam spin the rabbit wheel again and again and again. 


End file.
